What Games Are You Looking Forward To In 2022?

Distant World 2
Old World (on steam)
A Shadow Empire expansion?

I have way too many RPG, open world and platform games in my backlog to consider anything new on that front.

Like the visual style on that!

Yeah, it looks really different, both in the visual style and also the camera usage

2022 - year of the 2s.

I love how STALKER is the fourth game in the series and still gets to be a “2”.

I feel like I’ll never even get to my backlog with so many new releases on the horizon I want to play. :(

Sifu
Horizon Forbidden West
Elden Ring
Stray
Salt & Sacrifice

It’ll be waiting for you in retirement :)

Polygon’s turn. Quite a bit different list than the one Kotaku did above.

Oh hey, they also did a list of most anticipated.

Some incredible stuff coming next year. I think it’s a toss up between Warhammer 3, Elden Ring, and Triangle Strategy for me as to what I’m the most hyped for (with regards to games we know anything tangible about - knot counting stuff like Breath of the Wild 2 just yet).

The only things on my list so far are KOF15 and Freedom Planet 2 (know plenty of the devs behind that, some are friends, so excited due to that!)

I’ve got super high hopes for Triangle Strategy!

Tier 1 - these are the titles that I have or will pre-order and enjoy, regardless of reviews (though I would expect said reviews to be quite good given what I have seen and/or know of these titles) immediately without hesitation. I’m hyped as hell for each of these.

*Elden Ring* - Released and amazing.
*Triangle Strategy* - Released and amazing.
*Total War: Warhammer 3* - Released and solid. The campaign isn’t ideal, but now we wait for Immortal Empires.
God of War: Ragnarok
Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2
*Horizon Forbidden West* - Released and excellent. It had the bad timing to drop right before Triangle Strategy and Elden Ring so I had put it on hold for a bit, but now I’ve wrapped Elden Ring (damn near Platinuming it) I’ll get back to this.
Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope
Final Fantasy XVI
The Outer Worlds 2
Marvel’s Spider-man 2

Tier 2 - these are titles I’m interested in and will likely grab day one if I’m not in the middle of a tier 1 game at the time of launch.

Starfield
STALKER 2
Baldur’s Gate III
Salt and Sacrifice
Marvel’s Midnight Suns

Tier 3- this list includes games I think I would enjoy so I’m keeping track of them but I’ll likely want to wait for reviews/word of mouth/gameplay footage before pulling the trigger.

Metal Slug Tactics
Hollow Knight Silksong
Cursed to Golf
Dune: Spice Wars
Forspoken
*Ghostwire: Tokyo* - Looks like a fairly average game with mediocre combat. Might look into it when it’s on sale and has had some updates to address (hopefully) issues reviewers brought up.
*Tunic* - Released and seems more hardcore than I had expected/wanted. It’s getting good reviews and is still worth looking up at some point, I suspect, but it will remain in Tier 3 for now.
Company of Heroes 3
Hogwarts Legacy - Now we’ve seen gameplay from the March State of Play, I think this could actually be super cool. Keeping an eye on it.
Wizard with a Gun
*Dying Light 2* - Released and seemed somewhat janky/mediocre. Will pick it up later in the summer when things slow down and/or it goes on sale. Moved to Tier 3 for now.
*Distant Worlds 2* - Unfortunately looks to be as boring a spreadsheet simulator as DW:U. Probably pass on this, I regret the Universe purchase I made years ago already. Moved to Tier 3. I also see Brian gave up on it even, so big oof there.

That’s a lot of Tier 1 games for me. 2022 is looking real fucking good gaming wise, fellas.

Games I will likely purchase/play at release…
Breath of the Wild Sequel
Ghostwire: Tokyo
King of Fighters XV
Horizon: Forbidden West
Bayonetta 3
Windjammers 2
Gran Turismo 7
Deathverse: Let It Die
Sol Cresta
Splatoon 3

Mildly looking forward to but basically not sure because of time needed to invest in them or just haven’t seen enough yet…
Elden Ring
Pokémon Legends: Arceus
Total War: Warhammer III
Babylon’s Fall
Gungrave: G.O.R.E.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land

If it arrives this year…
Arc Raiders
Starfield
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
System Shock (Remake)

I also fully expect Nintendo to announce and release games in 2022 that I will buy. That happens every year with them. I’ll also be picking up various Arcade Archives releases on Switch throughout 2022 as I have every year now.

And not just them - most of the stuff on my own list is coming in the first half of the year, imagine the stuff we don’t even know about yet! Shaping up to be a crazy good year for gaming, I think.

It looks pretty good right now. I’m happy there will be some new games in entirely new places with potentially entirely new gameplay. One reason I think Deathloop really stands out from 2021 is that it’s essentially an all new thing. Sure, you shoot stuff, but it’s all in a brand new world with great looking consistent aesthetics, and interesting new characters. We need more of that.

From my list, if I had to cut it down to just a few, I’d select Ghostwire: Tokyo at the top. They’re new young designers working at Shinji Mikami’s studio and the game looks amazingly unique because he seems to have given them freedom to build something brand new.

IIRC, Mikami talks about it in this two part interview from 2021 on the 30th anniversary of his beginning in video games.

Starfield, Arc Raiders… these are also high up there in interest for me because they are new things with big budgets.

A huge reason I’m super excited for Triangle Strategy - we haven’t had a big budget SRPG before, not really, and this looks like it’s going to really (potentially) do some innovative stuff in that space.

It was common for me to enter a new year with a list of all the games I planned to buy, the ones I’d keep an eye on, and such. But I didn’t do that well in 2020, and I decided to not do that at all in 2021. I’ll just go from surprise to surprise, I guess.

That said, here’s what can be found in my mind:

  • God of War and Monster Hunter Rise for the PC - they come out in a week or so and I already preordered both.
  • Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons - the next GW2 expansion comes out in February, and I already bought that one as well.
  • Elden Ring - somewhat interested, but I’ll wait for reviews and regional pricing before committing.
  • Sifu - looks interesting, but again, I’ll wait for reviews.
  • The King of Fighters XV - I love fighting games, but I still barely played Melty Blood Lumina, so I’ll probably buy this one at some point but not necessarily close to release.
  • Persona 4 Arena Ultimax - see above. ;)
  • DNF Duel - Arc System Works means I’ll buy this at some point for sure.
  • Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin - hey, who doesn’t want to kill Chaos?
  • Tiny Tina’s Wonderland - I enjoyed the Borderlands 2 DLC that inspired this, but I’m not sure I want more fantasy Borderlands. I’ll wait for reviews.
  • Forspoken - somewhat interested in this, but the regional pricing for this one is ludicrous.
  • Distant Worlds 2 - I must have this one.
  • Starfield - I have a love/hate relationship with Bethesda RPGs, so I’ll probably buy this one. We’ll see.

Some games like God of War Ragnarok and Horizon Forbidden West and Final Fantasy XVI would be in my list if they were planned to come out for the PC this year, or if I had a PS5. But that’s not the case, as far as I know. Same with Switch exclusives, since I don’t have a Switch and won’t buy one.

Also, I’d love to buy a Steam Deck, but I don’t think those will be available in my region anytime soon, or ever. We’ll see.